League of Legends LCS contracts ban streaming of Dota 2, World of Tanks, Blizzard games

Leaked portions of a League of Legends professional LCS player's contract have led to some startling revelations, as reported by OnGamers. Players in Riot Games' professional eSports league are contractually obligated not to livestream dozens of games.

The anti-competitive clause's bans fall into several categories: online betting/gambling sites, MOBAs, popular eSports games and Blizzard games. That list includes:

Gambling Sites: Full Tilt, TopBet, Pokerstars, Sportsbook, BetOnline, Winpalace Casino, Bet365 and any site that aids or abets the wagering of funds on a sporting/esporting event and many more

Blizzard Games: All games in the Diablo, StarCraft, WarCraft, World of Warcraft and Hearthstone franchises

As should be apparent, Riot Games has banned its professional League players from livestreaming not only some of the biggest and most popular video games online, but also several smaller, struggling games. While banning gambling sites should be obvious, considering the environment Riot would like to have for its sport, banning the other games is hard to view in a positive light.

Considering League of Legends is both one of the most popular games in the world , one of the most popular eSports in the world, and certainly the most livestreamed video game in the world, these contracts look astonishingly over-restrictive, anti-competitive and disappointing in the extreme.

Certainly a company like Riot Games, who claims to be a supporter of eSports in the broadest of terms, understands the meaning of being a leader. Each of these LCS players, they're not just League of Legends players, they're ambassadors of eSports and gaming. Each time of them livestreams they share their gaming experiences with thousands of gamers, growing and uniting communities. Banning games outright does the opposite, it creates barriers and divides our community. I believe Riot is working against their own interests here; I believe Riot is working against the interests of the gaming community.

That said, I highly doubt Riot Games will change the policy, let alone address it in a public setting. For all of the community interaction they feign, very little interferes with the bureaucracy of their eSports administration. That doesn't change the fact that these contractual clauses are inhibitive to the goals of our community, and yes, the goals of Riot themselves. I don't think I'll be forgetting that the next time I'm deciding what streams I'll be watching.

For those curious, the language of the contract reads as the following: "The following companies and/or products are not to be advertised during or adjacent to League of Legends content during the term. To the extent that a specific game title is listed below a particular video game developer and/or publisher, the foregoing restriction shall be limited to the particular game title(s) listed for the developer/publisher and does not extend to other game title(s) created and/or distributed by said video game developer and/or publisher."

This would be in a situation where say, Dyrus hops on Twitch.tv and decides he'll play some League of Legends. He queues up and seeing that it will probably be ~30 minutes in queue he'll fire up some Hearthstone to pass the time. This. Is against their contract. Why? Because on Twitch.tv Dyrus will have listed his stream title and game as League of Legends.

Dyrus is going to play some League of Legends, same scenario. He starts up Hearthstone and he's free to play it... As long as he changes the Currently Playing: to Hearthstone.

Sure it sucks that we can't watch people play other games while waiting, but if you're really wanting to see some Starcraft, Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, etc. how about you go look for them on Twitch.tv? If I want to see someone rock Hearthstone, it will be a pro Hearthstone player, not a pro League player. The only downside I see to any of this is the fact that now there isn't much to do in queue besides answer viewer questions or play the millions of games that are not listed in the contract...

You guys are making a big deal out of something that was in place last LCS.

I feel this report us biased and only looks at the negative side. If you look at it from a managers perspective it makes sense you wouldn't want your pros showing other sports. I don't want to my favorite hockey player play football, or rugby. Why would I want to watch my favorite league player play DOTA 2.

I feel this report us biased and only looks at the negative side. If you look at it from a managers perspective it makes sense you wouldn't want your pros showing other sports. I don't want to my favorite hockey player play football, or rugby. Why would I want to watch my favorite league player play DOTA 2.

This would be a solid perspective if say the League of Legends players were also trying to play these other games professionally. That's not what this is about. This is about their ability to livestream themselves playing these games outside of their day jobs playing League of Legends.

There is essentially no other purpose for these clauses other than to prevent League of Legends pros from even being associated with other games in a public manner. It's selfish, it's anti-competitive and it's detrimental to the goals of the greater gaming community.

This would be in a situation where say, Dyrus hops on Twitch.tv and decides he'll play some League of Legends. He queues up and seeing that it will probably be ~30 minutes in queue he'll fire up some Hearthstone to pass the time. This. Is against their contract. Why? Because on Twitch.tv Dyrus will have listed his stream title and game as League of Legends.

Dyrus is going to play some League of Legends, same scenario. He starts up Hearthstone and he's free to play it... As long as he changes the Currently Playing: to Hearthstone.

Sure it sucks that we can't watch people play other games while waiting, but if you're really wanting to see some Starcraft, Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, etc. how about you go look for them on Twitch.tv? If I want to see someone rock Hearthstone, it will be a pro Hearthstone player, not a pro League player. The only downside I see to any of this is the fact that now there isn't much to do in queue besides answer viewer questions or play the millions of games that are not listed in the contract...

You guys are making a big deal out of something that was in place last LCS.

Yeah, but it's not like Riot pays them to stream. I cannot think of one LCS player that is okay with this.

For those curious, the language of the contract reads as the following: "The following companies and/or products are not to be advertised during or adjacent to League of Legends content during the term. To the extent that a specific game title is listed below a particular video game developer and/or publisher, the foregoing restriction shall be limited to the particular game title(s) listed for the developer/publisher and does not extend to other game title(s) created and/or distributed by said video game developer and/or publisher."

If this is the exact wording then the players are still free to stream the competing games and go nuts, they just have to have some downtime and planning in their stream. I'm not too bothered by it if so, the streams I've seen all did little interactive q&a and such with the viewers instead which is far preferable anyway.

Apparently Riot had this sort of deal in the previous iteration of the contracts, but was only really bothered with LCS players playing other MOBA type games on stream.

I don't care about the policy, but I'm not the one affected by it. Though, maybe it will prompt more streamers to talk to the viewers in queue after ads are done. If not, they can just play the other 1000s of games there are to play. Heck, honestly the only game that pro streamers will probably be sad not being able to play on their stream is Hearthstone.